Neutrino masses, grand unification, and baryon number violation

André De Gouvêa, Juan Herrero-García, Andrew Kobach

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

If grand unification is real, searches for baryon-number violation should be included on the list of observables that may reveal information regarding the origin of neutrino masses. Making use of an effective-operator approach and assuming that nature is SU(5) invariant at very short distances, we estimate the consequences of different scenarios that lead to light Majorana neutrinos for low-energy phenomena that violate baryon number minus lepton number (B-L) by two (or more) units, including neutron-antineutron oscillations and B-L violating nucleon decays. We find that, among all possible effective theories of lepton-number violation that lead to nonzero neutrino masses, only a subset is, broadly speaking, consistent with grand unification.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number016011
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume90
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 22 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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